Newly released photos of US President Donald Trump seated in the Oval Office while major world leaders sitting around him. Photo: White House website

Newly released photos of US President Donald Trump seated in the Oval Office while major world leaders sitting around him have drawn criticism as an “embarrassing” power play, overshadowing what was meant to be a show of global unity, according to media reports and observers.

Some on social media noted that the setup, with Trump behind the Resolute Desk and his European counterparts on chairs opposite him, presented the president as hosting a bunch of “unruly schoolchildren,” the UK media Independent said.

On Monday, Trump first hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and then held a meeting with seven European leaders at the White House, with a focus on resolving the Ukraine crisis.

The meeting involved Trump, Zelensky, the UK's Sir Keir Starmer, France's Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Germany's Friedrich Merz, Finland's Alexander Stubb, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission.

European leaders sat in a protective semicircle around Zelensky, keen to ensure that another Oval Office humiliation was avoided and that the trans-Atlantic alliance held, the German media DW said.

"This was a meeting where Europeans had the chance to show their unity and determination," said Almut M?ller, director of European and Global Affairs at the European Policy Centre, to DW. "Europe is not powerless."

The White House posted this photo of Trump surrounding by those major European leaders, calling it “a historic day” and the US president is the “President of Peace.”

However, some geopolitical observers and netizens on X platform considered that this newly released picture showing European leaders sitting in front of Trump’s desk signaled a moment of “embarrassment and humiliation.”

In commenting this photo, Daniel Foubert, a French-Polish geoeconomist, said on X that “The EU has made Europe meaningless.”

“European leaders rushed to Washington in numbers, desperate to be seen, desperate to be heard. They came not as partners but as petitioners, waiting for the word of one man who now holds all the cards,” Foubert said.

Another netizen called “I Meme Therefore I Am” said in a X post in commenting the photo that “Not sure everyone realizes it, but history is happening right in front of us! European leaders sitting around President Trump’s desk.”

A columnist Abhishek who often writes for Indian media said on X that “Why Trump is angry with India? Because European leaders are swallowing an impossible level of humiliation. Italian PM, German Chancellor, French President... all sitting like kids in principal's office…”

“Impossible for PM Modi to sit like this,” he said.

Global Times

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